Salazor Saan
Salazor Saan was a Lyseni Pirate-King, most famous for his membership to the organisation remembered infamously as the Band of Nine. History Salazor was born into the ambitious and notorious Saan family of Lys, and quickly found a place for himself serving aboard the Maiden’s Grace, the flagship of his grandfather, Saathos Saan. At the age of fourteen, Salazor dismantled an attempted mutiny against his grandfather, perpetrated by his uncle Salar, who later found himself stranded upon a tiny Stepstones isle rarely charted in punishment for his treachery, at Salazor’s own suggestion. Half a year later, Saathos Saan was slain and the Maiden’s Grace sunk by a Tyroshi naval attack in response to raids of Tyroshi slaver galleys returning from the flesh markets of Slaver’s Bay. Salazor was spared from the fate of his grandfather however, owing to his night before spent drinking and whoring, a habit that would soon come to define the pirate. Seeing the result as a sign that he should not go a day without tasting that a strong spirit and woman’s touch, Salazor would never shy far from either, frequently visiting the Halls of Silk of Yunkai, the Goddess’ Touch of Lys, and the Black Pearl of Braavos, all the while in elaborate disguise and with a bottle of Tyroshi pear brandy in hand. Salazor was pivotal in bringing together the members of what would eventually be known as the Band of Nine, an effort he achieved by first recruiting Mors Bone, the Commander of the Three Sails sellsail company, who in turn would go onto recruit the mercenary companies Mhysa’s Men and the Bronze Circle. Salazor also recruited Illan Irnys, a bold nobleman that had a history of looking the other way and otherwise assisting with Salazor’s smuggling activities. In 258AA, the nine members would meet at the Merchant’s House in Volantis, and begin to plan their quest of conquest and wealth. When their schemes were finally into play, it was the fleets of Salazor Saan, along with Mors Bone and the Three Sails that delivered the sellswords of the Bronze Circle and Mhysa’s Men into the city of Lys, allowing the Free City to be taken while the Lyseni army rushed to the aid of Achissa, a walled town within the Disputed Lands. With the fall of Lys to their forces, the Band of Nine installed themselves as Magisters of the city, seeking to use the Free City as a staging port for their rapid expansion and conquest of the surrounding regions. Salazor’s fleet ravaged the settlements along the shores of the Disputed Lands and the Orange Shore, as well as transporting men north upon the river Navari to the Silvertongue. After fleeing Lys in the wake of the Tiger Triarch Haelor Staegone, Salazor was amongst the few surviving members of the Nine that set up in the Stepstones. Starting his Kingdom upon the island of Scarwood, Saan was the first to betray his once-associates, starting with Maegon Targaryen. In a naval clash off the coast of Grey Gallows, the Valyrian’s flagship was sunk, and Maegon slain, supposedly by the hand of his first mate, whose loyalty had been purchased by Salazor’s days prior with a pouch of fine-cut emeralds, rubies and diamonds. After the death of both Maegon Targaryen and Andros Tarth, the exiled Summer Islander Prince Jhalobhar Xoro started to grow deeply paranoid of Salazor, assuming that he would soon be betrayed by the Lyseni. Xoro’s assumption would ultimately prove to be correct, for Salazor had arranged for poisoned quills to be hidden within the Summer Islander’s colourful feathered neck-frill, a ploy that resulted in the exiled Prince’s quick but undoubtedly agonising death in 265AA. Salazor Saan ruled over the isles for near a decade more, before his death from a pox in 273AA. In that time, he had grown fabulously wealthy from bribes received from Archon and Magisters alike, in hope of buying his allegiance. Taking their coin then pillaging their ships proved all the more profitable however, and thus many have travelled for the Stepstones in hopes of discovering his supposed horde, hidden away from a quarter of a century. Category:Lyseni Category:The Band of Nine Category:Essosi Category:Stepstones